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Home My WebLink AboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1977-06-30, Page 727' ��~. �, � �� ` � . • Page 32 ^ ' Thmas Jones.... *from page 8N senior was a deputy governor of the Canada Company. Due to "poverty of business ex- perience" on the part of Superintendent John Galt (as Jones' biographer writes) co- commissionership along with William —AUuu.• "financial pillar of the Family Cnmnpeot inCouude.^ Their c*onn,mbyiooerobAp continued until 1032. After Jones came to reside in Goderich. Canada CoMoony deeds were signed in Toronto by Allan and Frederick Widder. Hon. William Allan was a wealthy York (Toronto) merchant. first postmaster and first president of the I-Cank of Lipper Canada., His ap- pointment as commissioner was accompanied, Dr. L)esmond Morton has written, ^hyu firrn directive from the British oltapoho}dero to slash overhead and cut office costs." Allan mohoAcd the scat- tered Crown reserves and Jones managed the Huron Tract. This he did at first from Toronto. where in 1832 he married Elizabeth Mary. daughter of Rt. Rev. John Strachan. first Anglican Hishop of Toronto. In the Macrae -Adamson book, The Ancestral Roof, we learn that in 1833 "a gay whimsical villa was designed ^ for the bishop's son-in-law. The Jones villa was the work of an English architect, John G. Howard. *D that remains , of the Jones villa is the original plan in the Howard papers. but Howard's own Regency cottage. built three years |uter, stands open to visitors in Toronto's High Pork." The Jones house and estate eventually became part of the first ' Bishop Strachan School for girls. Jones undertook in(he n`id' mid- 30s a number of projects. Be operated a nteunnobip, but it was frequently locked in Goderich's silted harbor. Extensive ventures in lum- bering failed. The number of settlers was affected by recurrent epidemics of cbn\cru, and by uneasi.ness in Dpper•Cuoudupo}diro. Jones came to Goderich in 1840 or thereabouts. From the villa in Toronto he was reported to have transported 40 cartloads of furnishingsfor the Goderich residence known in later years as the Park House. John Galt, first superin- tendent, as he called himself, did not get along with the Company's London directors. who frowned upon his .ex'' pcoditurr, particularly on roads early set- tlers. Sizing up the situatioh, Galt returned Co Britain in 1829. Smith's Canudu, l850-51. contains the following comment: "Anyone msee with haif an eye' that had the system of settlement recommended and attempted to put in operation by him (Galt) been followed up with the same spirit with which it was uummencod, instead of the do-ootbbqg-tp- bcnrfit-the-public-but-what- we-are-compelled t't6e'public'but'wbat'wn ore oom etled system since adopted,, both the af- fairs of the Company and the Huron District would have been in a very different posjtion present occupy." The English language has been tortured in the foregoing. but the writer's meaning is clear as it relates to Jones' management, - The Canada Company and its commissioners were strongly opposed by Refor- mers in the Assembly, who objected to its monopolistic practices and alliance with the Family , Compact. Damaging criticism also came from the "Colborne Clique" of well-to-do and educated men who had bought large amounts of land and resented Company control over local affairs. Jones began to dabble in polihos, which was forbidden hyhis employers. By 1850, he -was clearly junior to Frederick Widder, and Goderich merely a brunch'oy the Toronto office. Jones had served in the Huron militia in 1837, and had been district warden. When the Canada Company directors supported the projected Toronto,Stcmtyocd' 5arniu Railway, and Huron residents the Buffalo & Goderich, Jones announced company support for the latter. In late 1852 he was dismissed. The company gave ,him a pension of 400 pounds. He was agent for the Bank of Montreal from 1852. Hc acquired a couple of West street lots opposite his former rcxidence, paying 400 pounds sterling to Dr. Peter McDougall and giving Baron van Tuyll a mortgage for 350 pounds. There was a houseon Lot 8 (9y originally num- bered) perhaps built by Ben xni||oc first owner of the lot after the Canada Company. Jones, ,as stated by one biographer, "held it on mortgage until his death and subsequent burial in Torontu.^ In the 1860s is housed Hand's bakeryToday it is numbered 'l0V West street. Jones moved to Toronto after the death of his wife in 1857. "and lived there in retirement until his death in 1868. survived by two sons. Chester Mercer Jones and Strachan Graham Jones," according to one authority. One would think he was at least temulorarilya0odericb resident when he ran for the Legislative Council in 1858. hut the Ontario Archivist was unable to confirm this, and there are no files of the Huron Signal in existence for 1857 or 1858 to provide particulars of the campaign or the can- didates. We do know (Signul'8tur. Aug. 21, 1075) ,that Com- missioner Jones bought 20 pews in the first St. George's Church on the Crescent. ancl paid for them 250 pounds sterling, about $1,200, They were in three separated groups, presumably for the family, staff and servants. The transaction took•place in 1851, while Jones was still commissioner. The grantors were the incumbent, Rev. E.L. Elwood, and the wardens, Dr. Morgan Hamilton and Isaac Raueubury. The grantee received a deed to "all the rig6t, title, interest and property whatever of us, the sites ny,cartaig pews or seats. . . for his and their use Gorevar.^ The church burned in 1879, but Jones was long gone and his pews doubtless resold, "Forever" isa long time. m ` ^ COMPARED �mw�m�p��\��m��N��v TO� . GODERICH'! After =�� N� �� - w ��0 ` only got started �� We in �� N��o�� N�� 94 �� That's years - the ��e N[ - BUT WBOTH GOING S p downand "N�� Come ��~~� enjoy yourself! '-- — - MAITLAN'D��N�COUNTRY ` ^ CLUB GOLF ^ ' TENNIS CURLING ° p " h � St l£ n b d tt Se st O o n se n u p a m es � � an 3 ia | pa